Uniform
by Rikulaw
Summary: In the end… I could only wear that uniform once. Warning: Spoiler up to Season 5, T for mention of character death, mostly Chuta's 1st POV narrative.


I don't own elDLIVE in any way. Just this one fan story. And please excuse my grammar. I write this in haste and I'm bad enough even when I tried to be careful.

 **Warning:** Spoiler up to Season 5, mention of character death

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It's been a few days since I joined elDLIVE. To be honest, I didn't want to join in the first place. It's just because Dolugh and Sonokata being so noisy that I ended up joining. But now I think about it, it's actually not bad. Sure there's a lot of scary aliens, but there's a lot of friendlier one too. And for the first time in years, I think I found somewhere I belong in.

"Chuta~! Your uniform is here. I put it in your room, so why don't you go and wear it. I want to see how you look."

Tonto-san called out to me as soon as I reporting in to the bridge. She's wearing a two piece uniform with a skirt instead of her usual blue jumpsuit.

"You remember where your room is, right?"

Chief Laine asked when I made no move. I nod my head and he broke into a wide grin.

"Then, what are you waiting for? Go get changed."

"Youyousa!"

I saluted once and scrambled through the door. To be honest, I don't really remember where it is, but Dolugh do. It's basically the same, right?

I opened the door and found my uniform folded neatly in my bed. The room is still clean even though I never use it. Maybe the ship's auto-cleaning function or something. I stipped myself out of my Shirobori uniform and put on the blue uniform. The size is just right. I wonder when they took my measurement…

" _Chuta looks good! Chuta looks cool!"_

Dolugh suddenly materialized in front of my face. I stumbled back and fall down to the bed.

"Don't suddenly appears out of nowhere!"

Dolugh doesn't answer my complain. I sighed and drag my feet back to the bridge. I feel Dolugh moving here and there around my body as I walk. It feels really weird.

Sonokata and Assistant Inspector Chips are already there when I entered the bridge. Both wearing their uniform too.

"Hyu~ That uniform looks quite good on you! Don't you think so, Misuzu?"

Tonto-san called from the other side of room. Sonokata turn her face away from me, certainly irritated.

" _It's a unique clothes! Dolugh likes it!"_

Dolugh moves even faster now I'm not walking. It feels weird, really weird.

"Dolugh! Don't move around!"

"Please don't wear that to school. And to shopping street too. And to supermarket too."

Sonokata said flatly. Does she think I don't have that much of a common sense?

"I know that much!"

"You two sure gets along well~"

Tonto-san said as she walk towards us.

"Do you have a loose screw somewhere?"

"Geez, I'm joking you know…"

A laugh erupted from the other personnel in bridge who happen to listen. Including the Chief.

"Great! Let's do Chuta's entrance ceremony!"

The ceremony is very simple, unlike what I imagined. It's just consist of a speech, taking oath, officially welcoming me to the station, and more speech. We have a small party after that, and everyone is laughing.

I see here and there and everyone is wearing a similar uniform. I thought the jumpsuit is their uniform, but it seems this uniform is the official one.

"Usually we just wear anything comfortable. We from maintenance division wears elLDIVE issued jumpsuit. You guys from CID mostly wears civilian clothes, unless you're expecting a prolonged desk work in the station instead of investigating outside. This uniform is mostly reserved for official event like this. Chief Laine wears this all the time because he need to be presentable any time higher ups calling as our representative."

Is what Tonto-san said when I told her about my concern since I don't want to ask Sonokata or bothering Assistant Inspector Chips who seems a bit… busy with tea.

And true to what she say, I never get any chance to wear it again even after a week. And the week after. Even when I got interrogated for Sonokata's case. To be honest, I'm actually looking forward wearing it again. It looks cool. Sonokata will surely say I'm childish, so I won't ever say it aloud. Even to Dolugh.

The closest I ever get is the jersey. I wear it quite often as Assistant Inspector Chips wants me to be holed up in the training room whenever I don't have any case or report or homework to work on. Well, I need to catch up with their expectation somehow. And training is a very good way to do it no matter how much I loathe it.

Then I meet Veronica, Ninotchka, and Dr. Love. I vaguely remember Veronica and Ninotchka around the ship. They always wears their uniform. But I saw them less and less in uniform ever since they're stationed at Earth to guard Dr. Love. Or maybe I just see them more with Shirobori uniform since they're my classmates. I don't know.

I just finished my measurement with Dr. Love, still sweaty after moving around a lot when Assistant Inspector Chips approached me.

"Chuta, can you fill in at the investigation room for a while chu? Me have something to do and we're a bit shorthanded."

"Sure… Should I wear my uniform?"

"It's okay chu. You can just wear your civilian clothes chu. You're going back to Earth later, right chu?"

"Yeah… okay."

"Thanks chu!"

Assistant Inspector Chips sped away through the corridor. I quickly changed from jersey to my Shirobori uniform. I always feels so out of place when I'm wandering in the ship with Earth's clothes. Maybe that's why I want to wear my elDLIVE uniform so much. It feels that I could fit in much better in the ship when I wear it that one time.

I look around the investigation room as soon as I arrived. I could only spot Ninotchka. She's wearing her uniform. It makes me feels out of place again. But it will be weirder if I just retreat after nearly everyone noticed my arrival.

My first time handling civilian report (or more like receptionist work as I put it) is a mess even though Sonokata already taught me how to handle it before. Maybe it's because I still feel out of place here. This strange case is not helping (I mean, who want to molest a grandma?). I'm feel relieved and shameful when Assistant Inspector Chips came back and cover me. It feels like everyone is looking at me. Things get better when Sonokata and Veronica came in with Shirobori uniform. At least, I'm not the only white in the sea of blue.

The next case I got myself in is a quite big case. It's the first time I work on a case with Division 1 and see them in civilian wears. It's a work, but I feel less out of place since everyone wears the same kind of clothes.

Next time I wear some sort of uniform beside the jersey is when we're filling in for Traffic Department, checking out a cargo ship that almost crashed with our ship. It's a plain grey spacesuit. I vaguely remember elDLIVE emblem etched in the side of the helm. It's a lot more comfortable than the spare suit Chief Laine made me wear when he _**throw**_ me off the ship the first time I'm here. Inspector Virgil complained that it's too hard to tell who is who, so we put a coloring on our plain grey spacesuit. I made myself blue.

I found myself liking the spacesuit quite a lot. Though I don't want to wear it for too long since it means I'll be out of gravity longer. Who knows that I actually keep wearing it for the rest of afternoon. In the worst way possible.

There's already a lot of bad memories a few hours I wear this suit. I watched my friends died… again. I almost died myself. Twice. I feel how powerless I am. I lied to my friends. A big heavy lie.

I can't wait to get off from this suit. If it could help me to ease the pain in my heart even just a bit.

During our stay in Earth, me and Sonokata mostly wears elDLIVE jersey and any other civilian wears she can get ahold off. Veronica and Ninotchka wears their civilian wear that was left in Earth branch. I just want everything to end soon. And maybe we could move on from all this.

When everything ended, the officials from HQ informed us that Jeanreno-R need to be sterilized before we can use it again. It includes scrubbing every wall of the ship out of any dangerous material and destroying anything that could be easily replaced. My mind wanders back to the uniform to escape the thought that they're currently cleaning the green remain of my… our friends. The uniform, like the stocked food and any other everyday product and clothes, are going to be destroyed since it cost less to replace it than to sterilize it.

In the end… I could only wear that uniform once.

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 **A/N** Sorry for the angst. I've been trying to get FMA out of my system when I realized that I need to post it first so the category could be accessed by public. Maybe I'll write more when the story progressed nicely. Hopefully there will be more fanfic for me to enjoy when the anime start. Ciao~!


End file.
